1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic program generating apparatus for automatically generating a source code program without mastering a program language in program generation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, when a program is ordered from a software vendor, a customer explains the job contents to a sales engineer and requests necessary processing contents. The sales engineer explains the processing contents to a system engineer. The system engineer defines program conditions for the processing contents and performs basic and detailed designs. A programmer performs coding based on the detailed design.
As described above, the process required until a source code program is generated is classified into (1) a step of transmitting the processing contents from the customer to the sales engineer, (2) a step of transmitting the processing contents from the sales engineer to the system engineer, performing the basic design, and then designing the detailed portions of the program based on the basic design, and (3) a step of transmitting the detailed design to the programmer and coding the program based on the detailed design. If an error (e.g., an item omission) in transmission contents is present in steps (2) and (3), although no error is present in step (1), it is difficult to find out such an error due to the following reason. Since transmission of the detailed design from the system engineer to the programmer becomes time-consuming and cumbersome, the system engineer transmits only the desired conditions to the programmer. Upon reception of the desired conditions, the programmer performs coding in accordance with his/her own decision. In this case, the resultant program itself may provide a layout, prints, image display contents, all of which are different from the expected ones.
As described above, a large number of steps are required in a conventional program generating process, errors tend to occur, and time-consuming operations are required.